Fun-employment

As many of you know, I began my AmeriCorps year 3 weeks early without pay, so they're letting me end 3 weeks early WITH pay! What have I been up to?

Nashville!
I went to Nashville a few days after my last day at work. I stayed with Melissa and had a fantastic time meeting her friends, watching Sex and the City, napping, and stealing good music ideas from her. I also got to see Alicia before she leaves for our beloved Bolivia. I will miss her SO much. We ate good food together, had deep talks about life, God, Bolivia, our future AND not-so-deep talks about how to wash your hair with only baking soda, girl/boy relationships and how to cook without using processed stuff....we also swam across a lake! (this was a true miracle, since I thought I hated swimming and exercising- turns out I love them both!) I also got to hang out with Natalie and Linda. We had good mexican food and cookies, drank wine, caught up and talked about where we wanted to be in the next year or so. It was fantastic. We ended the night attending their neighbor's stand-up routine at a bar down the road. It was perfect. :)

Shortly after returning from Nashville, I decided that I hate Chicago weather. So I packed up again and drove to Kansas for another week!

Kansas
Home is where the heart is. And my heart is with my family. They are wonderful...never a dull moment! I spent the 4th with all my family, eating a ton, having a canon blow up in my face (I couldn't hear anything but ringing out of my right ear for about 3 hours!) and fishing. I babysat my nephew, who is at that 'I get into everything' stage and was exhausted after only a few hours! My sister played with my hair while we talked about how much our lives will change in the next few years, and I learned how to make Banana Bread with my mom and sister. I cry everytime I have to leave them...and this time was no different.

Back to Chicago
I just got back this weekend and hit the ground running. Apartment searching. No Doubt come back tour (where my friend and I almost got kicked out for jumping VIP boxes!). Digging up garden and replanting everything. Job searching. Apartment searching. Harry Potter watching. On the Road reading (which has not influenced me in a good way- I just want to hop back in the car and head west!)

And now real life begins.

Nashville, Come Back?

I went from this, to this....feel bad for me :(

Harry, I've Moved On

I had to do something. I was missing my Harry Potter on the train. So I read Jane Austin's Emma, which was beautiful, with such fun characters! Reading such happy material can only go for so long before it's time for a downer....:) So of course Dostoevsky was my first choice! I figured his short stories would overwhelm me a little at a time, versus his novels- which sometimes seem to never end.

But I thought this was beautiful:

"For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments. And meanwhile your soul is all the time craving and longing for something else. And in vain does the dreamer rummage about in his old dreams, raking them over as though they were a heap of cinders, looking in these cinders for some spark, however tiny, to fan it into a flame so as to warm his chilled blood by it and revive in it all that he held so dear before, all that touched his heart, that made his blood course through his veins, that drew tears from his eyes, and that so splendidly deceived him!"

Fyodor Dostoevsky in 'White Nights'

Business Casual

Most of the time 'business casual' at work makes me feel motivated, determined, even a little powerful. I like it because it makes me want to live up to my attire with the work I'm doing.

But on days like today, I wish that everyone could take me just a seriously professionally if I was wearing my bright red Erie Police shirt that has 'DIAL 911' written in bold letters on the back. I'm tired of wearing black. You couple 'business casual' with large sunglasses, cutsie purse, and my reading of 'Emma' on the train and I look like your average city snob.

But alas, somehow, this did not deter the four 15-year-old boys out for a joy ride in Mom's minivan from cat-calling and giggling profusely afterwards on my way back from lunch. I must look like someone who might date a 15-year-old. Or maybe they're really into black...or Jane Austin...

Harry....

I miss you.

I finished the last Harry Potter book this weekend. And I feel like I've just returned from a long journey with a friend, a friend that I may never see again. It's like he became my friendly neighbor that I would check on multiple times a day (though usually on the train). I'm just waiting for him to pop up somewhere and in some kind of trouble that I can read him through.....

So to distract me from the Harry-shaped hole in my heart, I've been watching Gilmore Girls. I'm almost through season 2 and the girls are becoming my Harry...slowly but surely!

I think I may get a little too emotionally attached to fictional characters....

Visitors!

I'm loving my life right now. Reasons?

1. Nacho: One of my best friends in high school. Came to visit this past weekend. We did lots of fun tourist-like things (including jumping pics at the bean, walking for hours on end, lots of free things) and did a lot of just hanging out. I kicked his butt at Scrabble, he gave me tips on my garden, and we ate LOTS of new and fun food together.

2. Sista-face (Aka: Amanda): My all-time-favoritist-sista-sista-Manda-Jessie-pretty-girl. She just got here yesterday and already my life is 50 billions times better than it was the day before. I like her. She's awesome. We watched Step-Up 2, talked about becoming professional dancers (well, I did) and ate pizza, doritos and other chocolate. She's my favorite and I just might try and convince her to stay forever....

Save Mar!